A post shared by McDonald's (@mcdonalds) on Jul 2, 2016 at 10:36am PDT

Taste difference.

Picture the scene, it’s a late Saturday night, you’ve missed your night bus and there’s not going to be another one for hours. So you decided to go to McDonald’s to order a Big Mac Meal with Coke.

You take one sip from your drink and your taste buds are tingling. If you’ve ever wondered why Coca-Cola tastes so damn good when you go to McDonald’s it’s because there’s a special process involved, according to Spoon University.

A post shared by McDonald's (@mcdonalds) on Jun 28, 2016 at 8:25am PDT

Firstly, unlike other fast food chains, who received their Coca-Cola deliveries in plastic bags, McDonald’s have theirs delivered in stainless steel containers. This is so they can preserve the ingredients, therefore keeping the taste much fresher than the competition.

… in order to ensure our drinks are always meeting a gold standard, we have proper filtration methods in place.

So in layman’s terms: they actually filter their water more than their rivals (presumably), investing a lot of bank to maintain their filtration system. Because as you know, fresh water means fresh coke.

Another thing they do is maintaining the right level of temperature for their drinks. They run an insulated tube from their refrigerator, in the back room, all the way to their drinks machine at the front desk and drive-through.

A post shared by McDonald's (@mcdonalds) on Jun 17, 2014 at 10:27am PDT

Water will consistently run through the tube so the temperature remains just above freezing. Keeping it cold is integral for achieving ‘peak C02 levels’, this not only means that your coke will taste good but that the carbonation will remain longer than their rivals.

According to Spoon University they advise to:

Never order a McDonald’s coke without ice. The ice is essential to maintaining the perfect syrup ratio.

Which leads so perfectly onto the next part of the process, the syrup. Using the same care they use with their water, McDonald’s staff pre-chills the syrup ‘before putting it in the fountain dispensers’.

Another crucial but often overlooked part is the straw. Crazy right? We know, but it’s integral.

If you’ve ever wondered why their straws are wider than the likes of Burger King, KFC and Subway it’s ‘so all that Coke taste can hit all your taste buds’ (that’s what the McDonald’s website tells us anyway).

So next time one of your ‘so-called mate’s’ judges you for having a McDonald’s with a Coke, you can dazzle them with this fountain of knowledge and tell them to go back to eating that dry-ass kale and non-alcoholic beer.

In other McDonald’s related news last month saw the cinematic release of The Founder which dramatises the rise of world’s most famous fast food chain. It stars Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman and B.J. Novak.